Dual‑track diplomatic messaging

China’s leading scholars and officials increasingly craft two distinct foreign‑policy narratives: one framed for international audiences (stability, bargains, reassurance) and another tailored for domestic consumption (sovereignty, networked friends, neighbourhood leverage). The deliberate divergence lets Beijing explore transactional deals abroad while preserving domestic legitimacy and elite signalling at home. — If states routinely run divergent domestic vs international messaging as a strategic tool, analysts, diplomats and journalists must treat public pronouncements as audience‑conditioned signals rather than single, translatable policy commitments.